[2018 November Tests] England vs New Zealand 10/11/18

[MarkyH]

Venue: Twickenham Stadium
Time: 17:00 CAT (SA, GMT+2)


Referee: Jérôme Garcès (France)

Live on Sky Sports​

 

[MarkyH]

So, what's a high tackle anyway? No more talk of that please

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Curry out is an absolute stinker,
I really hope we see Underhill named there, but I've a bad feeling he'll do something dumb like playing Wilson there, or Shields

 

[Joseph Croker]

I would go with:

Moon
Hartley
Williams
Itoje
Kruis
Wilson
Underhill
Mercer

Youngs
Ford
Daly
Farrell
Tualagi
May
Brown

George, Hepburn, Sinkler, Lawes, Shields, Care, Slade, Ashton

 

[MarkyH]

Massive shame that Curry is injured. Also a shame that both the Currys weren't called up.

Has to be Underhill surely?

 

[ncurd]

I would go with:

Moon
Hartley
Williams
Itoje
Kruis
Wilson
Underhill
Mercer

Youngs
Ford
Daly
Farrell
Tualagi
May
Brown

George, Hepburn, Sinkler, Lawes, Shields, Care, Slade, Ashton

I'd be very happy with that but I don't think we'd see it. In fact I'll be surprised unless like Curry it's enforced we'll see any changes.

Think we'll lose but I don't think we are looking at record margins or anything. Might win it if Barrett forgets his kicking boots.

 

[Jimbo]

I would go with:

Moon
Hartley
Williams
Itoje
Kruis
Wilson
Underhill
Mercer

Youngs
Ford
Daly
Farrell
Tualagi
May
Brown

George, Hepburn, Sinkler, Lawes, Shields, Care, Slade, Ashton

Looks good in the back but I would like to see Young's, Farrell, Noel, Tualangi, Daly, May Brown.

 

[kesh]

Wasn't Manu said to be available for this? They said it was precautionary not playing against SA and that if it was a World Cup game he would've played.

 

[Jimbo]

Wasn't Manu said to be available for this? They said it was precautionary not playing against SA and that if it was a World Cup game he would've played.

Your probably right I just live in hope that one day we will watch him in full flight for England.

 

[Jashay]

Despite all his flaws in the SA game I suspect we'll still be starting Te'o. But EJ must be thinking of Brown to FB, and Daly would presumably be a better shout for 13 than Slade.

And we'll probably still have Shields at 6 due to Eddie singling him out as a good player for some reason. Moon and Williams should start, as they were no slouches around the pitch and markedly better at scrum time.

So I reckon
1. Moon
2. Hartley (cc)
3. Williams
4. Itoje
5. Kruis
6. Shields
7. Underhill (if Curry's not fit)
8. Wilson

9. Youngs
10. Farrell
11. May
12. Te'o
13. Daly
14. Nowell
15. Brown

Subs: Hepburn, George, Sinkler, Ewels/Lawes, Mercer, Care, Ford, Tuilagi/Slade.

But I could honestly see Itoje 6 Shields 7 Wilson 8, just to Eddie things up.

 

[kesh]

Looks good in the back but I would like to see Young's, Farrell, Noel, Tualangi, Daly, May Brown.

Young's
Farrell
Noel
Tualangi
Slade
May
Brown

Daly had a shocker, terrible under the high ball and didn't even look for May when he was open.

 

[Roady]

I think you need Hartley in there starting still for experience and leadership with such an inexperienced pack around him, even though he is pretty average a lot of the time.

Thought Moon and Williams shored up the scrum a lot so they should probably start, Sink is better off the bench anyway as is George usually. (Fair play to Moon for smashing Vermeulen btw)

Personally I would have kept Cole in the squad. We have lost so many caps that even if Cole is pretty average, you know you can rely on him to always be that way. So many new players, we need some consistency, however Williams to start would be fine by me.

Kruis and Itoje always works well. I wish Itoje had done a bit more carrying and a few less stupid penalties. Lawes would probably get the nudge for lock cover for me.

Shields probably shouldn't start. Wilson-Underhill-Mercer looks like a really balanced backrow to me. I wouldn't mind Wilson-Underill-Morgan either with Mercer on the bench either.

If Tualagi plays then Ford-Farrell is probably your best bet at unlocking the backline. If Tualagi plays 12 the ball will never make it to the wing and Slade says he hates 12. T'eo can just go away.

I thought Youngs did a really good job controlling the game under a lot of pressure and his kicks were spot on (even if there was a very ineffective chase behind them), I think he should start. Care is great at lifting the tempo in the second half.

Daly got shown up at 15 against the Saffers, NZ would only be worse. He is much better utilised on the wing, and Brown is rock solid at the back despite his flaws.

Ashton to come on off the bench to fullback if Brown is being a bit boring or flat, hopefully the pace of May-Ashton-Daly will tear up and score some tries.

I thought Noel played really well, probably doesn't get the nudge over Daly and May which is a shame. And I can't see Daly going to 13 again at the moment.

 

[Jimbo]

Young's
Farrell
Noel
Tualangi
Slade
May
Brown

Daly had a shocker, terrible under the high ball and didn't even look for May when he was open.

Yeah hence why he is not at 15 in my selection, he is a quality player but doesn't seem to perform to well at 15 for England, it was strange under the high ball though for Wasps he often chases and wins the high balls so not sure what was wrong on the day.

 

[ncurd]

Didn't Slade miss 50% of tackles?

He's just not up to international rugby sadly and we need to stop playing him. Don't punish Daly being played out of position.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Looking forward to this more than the Ireland game really.

I don't think England have a win in them unless the performance is something we've never seen before but I think they could hold NZ pretty close and beat them up a wee bit. NZ will score 3-6 tries, if it's 3 England have an outside chance, 4 will be respectable but any more and you'll be watching through your fingers.

Try make Barrett look a bit **** for your good friend and neighbor Johnny "sex God" Sexton.

 

[spartan32]

I would go with:

Moon
Hartley
Williams
Itoje
Kruis
Wilson
Underhill
Mercer

Youngs
Ford
Daly
Farrell
Tualagi
May
Brown

George, Hepburn, Sinkler, Lawes, Shields, Care, Slade, Ashton

I don't reckon EJ will drop Te'o, so expect him on the bench at the very least.

Have no idea what's going to happen in the forwards but I expect EJ to go for...

9. Youngs
10. Farrell
11. May
12. Te'o
13. Slade
14. Daly
15. Brown

Care, Manu, Ford on the bench.

I can't see Manu starting, he wasn't going to against SA so don't know why he would this time, assuming he does actually become fit, which is still doubt.

Daly has to play simply for that massive boot of his. It's the sort of thing that can win matches, but he was pretty dire at 15, so the safe pair of hands return in Brown. I suppose he could theoretically start Ashton at 15, but I just don't see him doing that out of nowhere.

EJ. LOVES TEO! And he didn't do anything so bad at the weekend to change that so he surely starts. There are no options at 13 so Slade starts there, unless I'm wrong about Manu starting, but I'd be surprised.

Nowell loses out so Daly can start.
Ashton loses out so Ford and Manu can bench.

Not a clue what we do in the forwards.
Assume Etoji and Kruis start, as does Hartley. Wilson has to get a nod? I'd assume
Underhill brought in as cover for Curry? I think EJ has a love in with Sheilds as well so expect him to start. Other than that I have no idea.

Whatever we do we need to have a stratospherically better start than last weekend otherwise NZ will be out of sight before the oranges are cut. Quite frankly I thought Saturday was a bit of a miracle, a repeat would be astounding. If Jones can manage it, and then goes on to win the remaining two, that would be 3 miracles in a row and he can put his name up for sainthood.

Then we can look forward to Saint Jones's Day and one extra long weekend......

Nice to dream

 

[Roady]

I would start Manu just because he's probably going to break anyway so you may as well deploy him against the All Blacks while you can. Though long term that's probably not very smart... I guess it will be Farrell T'eo Slade again. Ford for last quarter impact sub again, god knows why.

 

[Jimbo]

It's in the bag for England we've been preparing for it for the last 18 months, Eddie knew we couldn't beat the ABs when they expect a tough England ranked second in the world so turn into a shower of **** then pull out all the stops on an unsuspecting AB team.

Here's to hoping anyway...

 

[Jashay]

There are no options at 13 so Slade starts there,

Daly, surely? Or Marchant, purely because he couldn't really be worse than Slade

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

The one gamble I'd have liked would have been VRR over one of the Chiefs at LH. I know we won one massive scrum penalty but we were marmalised too often. He's not in the squad so it won't happen, but 50 mins of strong scrummaging would have been fine.

Utterly underwhelmed by Shields so far, but I guess Jones will stick with him with Mercer benching again.